Félix Archimède Pouchet

Félix Archimède Pouchet
Born August 26, 1800
Rouen
Died December 6, 1872
Nationality France
Fields Natural history
Institutions Rouen Museum of Natural History
Known for spontaneous generation

Félix-Archimède Pouchet (August 26, 1800, in Rouen, France to December 6, 1872) was a French naturalist and a leading proponent of spontaneous generation of life from non-living materials, and as such an opponent of Louis Pasteur's germ theory.[1] He was the father of Georges Pouchet (1833–1894), a professor of comparative anatomy.

From 1828 he was director of the Rouen Museum of Natural History and the Rouen Jardin des Plantes. Later, in 1838, he became professor at the School of Medicine at Rouen. His major scientific work Hétérogénie was published in 1859. He also wrote a layperson's encyclopedia The Universe, published in 1870, which gives an overview of the sciences, but in which Pouchet ridicules Louis Pasteur's theories (calling them panspermism) and atomic theory.

In 1847 Felix-Archimede Pouchet effectively launched the study of the physiology of cytology.[2]

References

  1. ↑ Roll-Hansen, N (July 1979). "Experimental method and spontaneous generation: the controversy between Pasteur and Pouchet, 1859--64". Journal of the history of medicine and allied sciences (UNITED STATES) 34 (3): 273–92. doi:10.1093/jhmas/XXXIV.3.273. PMID 383780.
  2. ↑ Diamantis, Aristidis; Androutsos George (2008). "Highlights from the history of hormonal cytology". Hormones (Athens) (Greece) 7 (2): 184–6. ISSN 1109-3099. PMID 18477558.
  3. ↑ "Author Query for 'Pouchet'". International Plant Names Index.